♪ >> good morning. it is wednesday, wednesday, may the 2nd. good to see you this morning. thank you for joining us. and welcome to the full-court press here on current tv. good to see you this morning. boy, it's a busy day already. and lots and lots to talk about. the big news biggest news of all, of course president obama makes an unscheduled visit to afghanistan surprising a lot of white house reporters, including this one, and the president

announcing yesterday the good news 23,000 american troops will be home before the end of the summer from afghanistan. the bad news is that the rest of the troops won't be home until the end of 2014. in other words, this ol' war is going to drag out for another two and a half years. hey, we will get into that from every angle and a lot of other stories this morning, but first here with the latest current tv news update, out in los angeles, jacki schechner. hi, jacki. >> hi, bill. good morning, everyone. as bill just mentioned, the big news this morning is that president obama is back in dc after his surprise visit to afghanistan where he marked the one year anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden. he plans to have 23,000 troops out of afghanistan by the end of the summer. he and president karzai signed a

cooperation agreement yesterday outlining that transfer. the u.s. embassy in kabul is on lockdown and has cancelled all appointments after at least two major explosions rocked the afghan afghani capital after president obama left the city. the taliban is taking credit for the explosions telling "the wall street journal" it was in direct response to president obama's visit. reports this morning are that seven people are dead and at least 17 are injured. after a relatively quiet winter the occupy movement is back in action as the protesters picked yesterday to celebrate the 99%. rallies around the country in collaboration with protests around the world. there is current reporters on the ground in l.a. and new york yesterday spending time documenting what went on. so what's next for occupy? organizers are hoping to have an impact on the political dialogue in the coming months making sure issues like tax equity rich

paying fair share and how to get money out of politics are in the conversation in the coming months. conversions with us on line. will you? current.com/billpress.

i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care

for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take any planned medical or dental procedures and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. having afib not caused by a heart valve problem increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk with pradaxa. we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct.

>>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... ♪ ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. >> all aboard! yes, we are heading to kabul, unannounced visit. what do you say? good morning everybody. we will get to kabul by way of the full court press this wednesday morning, may 2nd. so good to see you today. i am bill press, and i will be with you for the next three hours tackling the big stories of the day with all of you and talking about everything that's

going on here. coming to you live coast to coast from our radio factory here and t.v. factory and book factory on capitol hill in washington, d.c. the congress is out of town the house and the senate are keeping watch here on the doings in washington at the whitehouse around the country and around the globe. we will tell you all about it and take your calls and get you involved in the k at 866-55-press. good to see you. it's a beautiful day in washington, d.c. already feels like about 70 degrees outside. so it's going to be a beautiful day today. beautiful day for the whole team here in the neighborhood. peter ogburn. >> hi, there. >> dan henning. >> good morning. >> good morning. cyprian goldboulding, our great videographer there, giving his morning waive. how about it. >> nice to be here. better than kabul. >> yeah. yeah. i mean if you are going to go to

kabul, i would like that to be for more than six hours. >> you want to go for longer? i would want to go right out. >> i don't think i want a 16 hour flight. change your socks. you can't see all of the sights of kabul in six hours. >> that's for sure. >> i went all the way to kabul, and all i got was a lousy bullet-proof vest. >> now ann romney yesterday on the cbs morning news she spoke up. she wants us to know that the image we see of mitt as being so boring and so stiff is just not right. >> i love the opportunity of letting people see a side of mitt people have often mischaracterized. >> what side is that? >> he is nice. he is funny. >> why hasn't that come out? you know, it's going -- >> yeah. >> it's an interesting thing that, again, people like to keep

him in thatnative that narrative. so it's nice for me as a wife to be able to say now look, this is the person that's really there. this is the boy that i knew. i still look at him as the boy in high school with jokes. >> wild and crazy guy. >> being crazy, pretty crazy. >> yeah. >> there is a wild and crazy man inside of there. >> wild and crazy man. i don't know. i just got this book yesterday. yes buy it by the way. called "the real romney." i don't think the real romney is a wild and crazy guy. >> he looks like a real wild and crazy guy. >> he looks to me like one of those heads on easter island and has just about as much life in it as that on easter island. what kind of took away from an romney's message is she is wearing a tee shirt on television, a silk tee shirt. >> of course. >> by designer reed krakoff has

a high-falutin store. and some enterprising reporter pricedherty shirt, $990. >> that's not a cheap shirt. >> she really wants to give the impression that, you know we are just hanging out. i am just wearing a tee shirt, telling you how wild and crazy, a $900 freakin tea shirt. >> you could take every tee shirt i have ever bought as a human being and it wouldn't come close to a quarter of that. >> i think you could take all of the clothes i ever bought. but the think is. they can't open their mouth without showing you how rich they are. >> a thousand dollars tee shirt in the that sounds like the end of a bad joke. >> like michelle obama, j.crew.

you can't wash them. they will fall apart. >> i don't know if it would look great for the possible future first lady to show up showing a boob-in spector tee shirt. >> anyhow it just shows again how out of touch they are. what a line. a great talk show host from sirius xm radio is going to be along as a friend of bill joe siriana. siriana. bill burton head of the big super p.a.c. supporting the obama re-election, priorities u.s.a. will be in studio with us. >> that's just for starters. but first: >> this is the full court press. >> on this wednesday, other headlines making news, turns out $50 in cash will not get you very far these days. >> wow. >> it won't even buy you a tee shirt mark noler found that out. fishbowl reporting the white house correspondent tried buying a $10 breakfast but the cashier would not accept his $50 bill to

faye pay for it. he tweeted about it. he didn't just complain. he tweeted to the secretary of the treasury asking why his legal note of tender that tim geithner signed was not good enough to pay off the debt at starbucks. >> one correction. that was not reported by fishbowl d.c. that was reported by peter okay burn on fish bowl pc. >> hi, there. >> good job. >> i had a little help with that. >> mark noler a good friend of the program, it's so funny that mark noler would tweet. >> he is known for that. >> but the treasury secretary that he would have his twitter address. >> the whyidea that you go in with a $50 bill to pay for something less than $10 and make a giant stink about it, and the whole time, he had singles in his pocket. >> yeah. >> so i mean, why try to use a 50? >> trying to break change. trying to get change. >> you know what? i never carry anything bigger than a 20s on me.

>> i think people with a $50 bill or a $100... >> if it's over 20, i am usually going debit card. >> it's for paying. >> yeah. >> roger clemens' former new york yankee teammate andy pet at this time took the stand on his charges of lying to congress. cbs reporting petit mentioned to him in a workout 12 years ago that he had taken hgh. clements to this day maintains petit missremembers that. >> they avoided eye contact in the trial that continues today. >> this like the edwards trial, waste of time if you ask me. >> your driver's license is not now the only place to mark your organ donor status any more. you can now do that on facebook the social networking site allowing users to add their organ donation status to their profiles via state by state organ donor registries

mark zubeldiaingckerberg. >> i am driving. i have an accident and my -- i look at my driver's license, and mine shows i am an organ donor. okay? what am i going to do, look at my ipad and check my facebook profile to see if i am an organ donor? >> absolutely. if you are somewhere -- >> almost said it. >> you don't have your license and the next easiest thing for them to do at the hospital. >> i am more likely to have my license than my ipad. >> not everyone has an ipad. >> it uses facebook to get to the bigger registry. itt doesn't necessarily go to your facebook page. >> it's on your facebook page. you don't need it with you. they will look up your facebook page on their own computer anywhere. >> all right. i still don't... keep it on your driver's license. don't go away. i want to tell you guys about this yesterday. you might remember on the program yesterday morning here i

gave the president's schedule and i made a comment about how light the president had the how light a schedule no heavy lifting on the part of president obama because his scheduled showed, i remembered by heart, a briefing at 10:30, in the oval have the vice president, a meeting in the oval office at 11:00 o'clock and then nothing on the schedule which i pointed out until a meeting with leon panetta at 4:30 in the afternoon and a press briefing at 3:00. jay carney always has briefings at 12:30 and it may be 1:00 o'clock sometimes. usually 12:30. this was 3:00 o'clock, really late particularly for the reporters, the t.v. reporters. so, you know, i made a comment about, good. the president laying back resting up after the white house correspondent's dinner. go down there like my dutiful job, doing my job, white house reporter. and i arrived at about 10 minutes to 3:00, walked into the briefing room. there weren't many people there

but they know he usually starts late so the room doesn't fill up that early. one of my friends, a t.v. cameraman was sitting in the front row. and from cbs. and i -- so we were chatting about the dinner and some stuff and then i said to him, you know this is just crap having this briefing so late today, you know, 3:00 o'clock today, and he said to me mr. press, sit down alongside of me. and i did. he pointed out -- he was in the front row. he pointed up to the podium peter, and he looked up at me and he looked over to me and he had he said there is not going to be any briefing today because any minute now he may have president obama is going to land in afghanistan. and i went what? and he knew and the camera people there new. but everybody was sworn to sec

secrecy secrecy. so people were coming in for the briefing, like me and it was all a roos. the entire schedule all day long was a rous to keep it that the president was not there. >> they got everybody with it. >> it was about -- and so right away, i am thinking i am going to tweet this. and then i thought, oh, no. >> you better not. >> no. no. i am not. and, yeah, it was -- it was very well pulled off. right? yeah so just there is a little -- my little side of that and i thought on the part of the schedule, on the part of the president, it was a brilliant move, an important move, and a historic move. so he left about midnight monday after meeting with the prime minister of japan japan. they took off from andrews air force base, air force one had been kept in the hanger with the shades down and the lights off. they got the reporters in, the president in, they rolled out of

the hangar and they took off and kept it a big secret until they arrived at bog bamrum air force base base. it was once he was inside there that reporters could say we are here. about 5 minutes after i got to the white house, one cameraman said it's official. we can tell everybody. they announced. april fool. there will be no briefing today. the first thing the president did was to meet with president karzi and sign this agreement and then he went back and talked to the troops and said look. this isn't our war of choice but damn it, we took it on. >> i have come to afghanistan to mark a historic moment for our two nations and to do so on afghan some. i am here to affirm the bonds between our countries, to thank american and afghans who have sacrificed so much over these

last 10 years. >> the president telling the troops why he was in afghanistan and then he did speak to the nation 7:30 eastern last night. i hope you got to the see the speech. it was a historic speech. first he announced they had new agreement he signed with president karzai. >> today i signed a historic agreement that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries, a future in the which afghans are responsible for the security of their nation and we will build an equal partnership between two sovereign states. >> the president said, you know it took us a long time and for -- this is kind of a dig at the bush administration, you know, for like eight long years, we were sort of fighting the wrong war but he said finally we got our stuff together and now we are on our way. >> america spent nearly eight years fighting a different war in iraq. and al-qaeda's interests within the taliban have raged a brutal insurgency. but over the last three years,

the tide has turned. we broke the taliban's momentum. we built strong afghan security forces. we devastated al-qaeda's leadership taking out over 20 of their top leaders. one year ago from base here in afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed osama bin laden. the goal i set to defeat al-qaeda and deny it at that chances to rebuild is now within our reach. still, there will be difficult days ahead. he normous vac faces of our men and women are not over. >> the president said, here is our timetable. this is important point i want you to focus on this morning because the good news is the president went over there. the good news is we are starting to bring our troops home. but listen to how long we are going to be there. >> another 23,000 will leave by the end of the summer. after that reductions will

continue at a steady pace with more and more of our troops coming home. as our coalition agreed by the end of 2014, the afghans will be fully responsible for the security of their country. >> so you see, we have come full-circle here, it was from afghanistan they planned the attacks against the united states. 10 years ago, we went in and we have gotten them. a year ago. we got their number 1 leader who decimated their forces. we have their number one leader a year ago. now, a year leader, the president is signing this agreement that we are going to get out. but 223,000 troops by the end of the summer, but we are still going to be there by 2014. this war is going to drag on for another two and a half years. is that good enough? your comments on the president's trip, big surprise trip yesterday, certainly stole mitt romney's thunder. and certainly showed him as commander in chief. but do we have to let this thing

drag on for another two and a half years? 866-55-press. you know the number. join the conversation, 866-55-77-377. >> this is the full court press. the bill press show. live on your radio and on current tv. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now. let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been >>join the debate now.

we're the idea nobody wants to hear. until the truth reveals itself.

and there's only one place you'll find us. ♪ >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. >> it's 26 minutes after the hour. you can always keep up with the program and catch all three hours of the program, which your daily schedule may not permit.

you can do so by getting a podcast subscription. go to our website at bill billpressshow.com. it's downloaded free frercial free, to your ipad, computer whichever you choose billpressshow.com is the website website. headlights this morning, turning page in the long war, but the president says that long war is going to be even longer because it's going to last until 2014, end of 2014. chris is calling from atlanta. hi, chris. good morning. >> good morning, bill. >> yeah. >> i am glad obama is pulling out in two years because, you know, remember the reagan administration, they just up and left afghanistan to fight this war on their own and that's what created osama bin laden and they got mad.

>> that's what republicans do. they just use and use. so i am glad that he is helping them and letting them know we are still there with them for them. we are pulling out, but we are not just taking off like vietnam and what the reagan administration did. if it was romney or mccain, we would be over there for 20 years. years. no one would be coming home. >> romney did say he wasn't sure we should be bringing home the troops as fast as we are. but, you know, the thing. chris, let's talk more about this at 866-55-press. the president's announcement begs the question about whether karzai is going to be able to clean up his corrupt government number 1. and, number 2, whether there will ever be a central government, a karzai government a central government in afghanistan that's ready and able to take over in two and a half years. i am not so sure from what we

have we have seen so far. >> this is the bill press show. ♪

her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times

right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv. can i say that? ♪ >> listen and watch the bill press show on your favorite radio station, and now on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> welcome to the spin room. >> on this wednesday may 2nd, '33 minutes after the hour the full court press coming at you live coast to coast from our little radio studio, t.v. studio and book factory here on capitol hill, yes, indeed, we told you about the obama hate machine. it's all about the koch brothers, the lies, distortions and personal attacks on the

president and who was behind them. if you don't have a copy yet and you want to get a signed copy, go to our website at billpressshow.com. the koch brothers are at it with a whole mess of ads, t.v. commercials and we will find out about that from the blue-gasoline green alliance. we jump into the spin room. in the spin room paul ryan this is a guy two years in a row has put the republican budget out there which would get rid, destroy medicare as we know it cut every program for the poor give corporations and the wealthiest of americans another tax break and then, he gets criticized for it but paul ryan says, that's okay. >> first of all, we knew we were going to getville vilified. second of all, why do you come to congress? do you want to fix the problems? we want to fix they country's problems. >> you don't fix this countr country's

problems by taking it all out on the poor, the seniors and middle class and giving the wealthiest people in the country another freaking tax break. of course you have been vilified. you should be thrown out of congress. as i mentioned, by the way, and we are still taking your calls on the president's trip to afghanistan. the get news is, he went. the bad news is, we are going to be there another two and a half years. is that good enough? can't we get out any sooner? why not bring the troops home tomorrow? 866-55-7377. we will get to yours calls. first koch brothers, americans for prosperity one of their big political fronts is out there millions of dollars in new t.v. ads. david foster is the executive director of the blue-green alliance joining us on our news line. david, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. happy to be with you. >> right. so, how much of americans for prosperity. right? it is a cokekoch brothers front.

i am not exaggerating when i say that? >> no. they have a deep investment interest in americans for prosperity. their latest ad buy is $6.1 million in 8 key swing states telling another line of falsehoods and myths about the green jobs that have been created over the last two years. >> these are actual t.v. ads on the air? this is not like a web ad that's just getting some viral -- >> not at all. these are ad buys on regular commercial television stations. >> what is their pitch? what is their attack? what is their claim? >> well, they tell outright falsehoods, pick up discarded, discredited news stories and they attempt to get them credence again. so for instance they accuse the federal government of having

built a solar plant in mexico with a $1.2 billion grant. >> that's absolutely false. the sun power project is actually in new mexico. it's a very big project, and it's well underway generating electricity electricity. exactly what the federal investment was for. similarly, they make the claim that the federal government is building traffic lights in china giving the viewer the impression that the united states is installing traffic lights all over that country. nothing to be further from the truth. the united states is putting energy-efficient traffic lights all over america as a result of the recovery act, and they are attempting to make it look like the united states is investing in clean energy and other -- in

other countries and turning its back on americans. of course they completely neglect to mention that the recovery act created nearly a million green jobs in america, one of the strong points of growth in this economy, one of the smartest and best strategies on putting americans back to work. >> well, who do they say is paying for these ads, david? >> they attempt to -- they, you know, of course hide behind current campaign finance law. they simply say that they are paid by americans for prosperity and americans for prosperity is under no obligation to report its full complement of donors. >> americans for prosperity certainly, i remember the president, himself, once as i recall -- i am pretty sure i have that correct -- mentioned americans for prosperity as one of these new groups that pop up and put a high-falutin, positive sounding name on it but you don't really -- most people when

they say americans for prosperity. whoa that sounds good. right? >> right. >> but you don't really know who is behind it. this is corporate money behind it. isn't it? >> that's absolutely right. and it's extremely wealthy individuals in this case. the koch brothers have made no secret the multi-million dollar investments that they have made from the very beginning for americans for prosperity. this is an organization that's deeply tied to the fossil fuel industry in the past. >> right. >> they have a direct interest in trying to discredited the job-creating -- yeah. >> they don't want green jobs? right? because they want all of the dirty jobs. no, again, my new book -- i don't know if you have seen it "the obama hate machine," one of the things i discovered is if you look at all of the koch brothers who are the third and fourth richest men in america, the way they spent their money particularly on the political front is to benefit their

operations. i mean they are all directed at their bottom line, which is to continue our dependency on fossil fuels. >> that's right. if your interest in protecting the environmentally degrading industries of the past and you are going to spend your money to try to prevent the growth of the technology the advancement of clean energy systems in the united states, you are going to do everything you can to try to keep the status quo and keep the country and the economy dependent on the very kinds of activities that got us into this big economic mess in the first place. >> just one way that the -- one more way the koch brothers are trying to undermine the political process and president barack obama. >> the blue green sheet, where can i find you bluegreen alliance.org? right? >> that's right.

all as one word. you will find us on our web slight eight american unions, four of the countries' most influential environmental organizations, 14 million people who share a common view the way we fix america's environmental and economic problems is by solving them together. >> i love that alliance of environmentalists and labor unions. dave foster director of bluegreen alliance. i have spent most of my life as an environmentalist and a proud union member. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> they do great work. there is another good exposure of the koch brothers. and now again, back to this president's stunning surprising trip to kabul, historic trip to kabul. but did we get on the substance as much out of it as we should have? bill is in pawtucket, rhode

island. >> how are you? >> good. thanks for the call. >> i think the president is doing a bang-up job with it. so we'll have -- keep a presence there in the middle east helping afghanistan as well as watching out for terrorists so they don't take over and, you know, i mean i was stationed in okinawa, japan when i was in the marine corps 30 years after world war ii. so i don't see any problem with it. >> so in other words, a lingering presence long after war has ended is something we can expect, i guess. well, again, look at the troops. look at the troops in the demil tar tarized zone in korea. hey, bill, appreciate hearing from you. again, i think the question is in this case, you know, we helped the japanese government get on their feet. they certainly were were pretty

skillful at doing so. they have done a great job of recovery. afghanistan has never had a central government. so i just wonder whether we are building this whole strategy on the hope that they're going to -- that they are going to change, that they are going to be able to actually take over and run that country. johnny in winston/sallem. >> i am disappointed in the president. i have been trying to get -- i am a black grandmother. >> uh-huh. >> i am calling all of my nieces and nephews and making sure everybody is getting registered to vote and make sure everything is right. i just had a nephew come back from afghanistan. i live in fayetteville at fort bragg. >> he said you don't know which town you can walk in. you are not for sure who you can shoot. >> uh-huh. >> it's just horrible. >> so what do you think the

president should have done, johnny? >> we should have come out of there in 2014 and left it alone. afghanistan will never be a country, never. the people are still living in 7th september tree. theres no reason for us to continue to be over there. i lost a brother in vietnam, johnny, jr., was my oldest child, my father's youngest child. he died in vietnam. my daddy was crippled in korea. we don't need to be over there. there is no reason for this. i was so disappointment disappointed in him last night i cried. i have been trying desperately to get everybody being black, we need to get ourself ided up so we can get the vote and i am calling all over the united states. i have people from north carolina to seattle, washington all over trying to get them registered. please, let's get ready to help this president get re-elected and he comes up here with some 224? i just had a great grandson born

in march. he will almost be old enough to go over there and fight. >> i got you. yeah. i got you, johnny. i hear you. i hear it. and i think a lot of -- i think a lot of americans and a lot of obama supporters like you were disappointed that he didn't say, look. this thing has gone on long enough. i originally said 2014, but no. i am going to get them all home by the end of the year and let the afghans -- look. they have had 10 freakin' years. don't you think they could pick up the pace a little bit? maybe take responsibility for their own country by now? more calls at 866-55-press. it's a wednesday morning, may 2nd here on the full-court press. good to have you with us. ♪ >> this is the bill press show. jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall.

(vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america.

♪ ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours?

look, i don't play 'bout my facial hair. but if i grow this out a little bit i look too much like an english country gent... naaah. a little this way and i feel like i'm from outer space. this and i feel like a viking... [ roars ] not my style, man. [ male announcer ] master your style... even trimming, a close shave and accurate edging... with the new gillette fusion proglide styler. every inch of hair needs to be on point. ♪ ♪ >> overwhelming majority of the country says tax the rich, don't go to war. >> that's awesome!

♪ >> from the world of politics this is the bill press show. >> taking your calls about the president's mission to afghanistan. it is addressed to the -- in his address, at least he didn't have a banner in back of him that said "mission accomplished." your calls at 8 since 6-55-press. plus a little reminder, actually, a question: how much extra money do you feel you need to earn each month? >> what the people at incomeathome would like to know. once they know they will help you meet that goal. incomeathome.com. they are america's leading work from-from home business. you heard me talk about that.

the business in over 80 countries. these are people you can trust. this is something you can do. no pressure no soap sell to go your neighbors. you can literally be earning money from your own laptop at your kitchen taken 2 for/7 with a little bit of extra training from incomeathome.com. if you are sick of living paycheck to paycheck, tired of worrying about job security, if your dream is to earn a lot of extra money from home, part-time or full-time, incomeathome.com. they are adding my listeners in record numbers. they are even giving away a thousand bucks to somebody for check checking them out. incomeathome.com. i just have to say one thing, you know, peter, we do -- sip cyprian is a talented man. we didn't know the skills. there was a fly in the studio.

driving my crazy. cyprian came out in the last break and with one swat right to the ground got that fly. >> right to the ground. remember when obama. >> watch out. >> joseph is calling from chicago. on the president's trip, what do you think, joseph is it. >> being in the navy i understand where the lady from south carolina was coming from. what are the chances of al-qaeda coming back. >> we would like to get out sooner but we want to be sure that we give the afghan government time to gear up and continue to defeat the taliban. >> exactly. >> in other words, are you saying you would like to get them home sooner but you understand why they are going to stay there?

>> exactly. >> yeah. all right, joseph. appreciate hearing from you. thanks for your call. up in rockchester, new york, hello carolyn. >> hello. >> good morning. >> i agree with the last caller. i thought we should not have one more day in afghanistan. but we cannot leave our back to them. afghanistan is bordered by pakistan. afghanistan has an eastern border. it has a long -- it has a long border with iran. if we leave a vacuum in afghaned afghan, who do you think -- afghanistan, who do you think is going to fill that? >> let me ask this carolyn, do you think by the end of 2014, it's going to be any different? >> i think that we have to give it -- i hate to say more of a chance but i think we have to.

what's the choice? >> the choice would be to stay there beyond 2014, which i am afraid is going to happen i am afraid we are going to get to 2014 and the approximate will say i told you we would bring them home but we can't do it because the taliban is out there. as i am sure you have seen after the president left yesterday, the taliban were able to get into some of the -- enough to cause trouble, to get into kabul and setoff a couple of explosions in kabul right after the president left with all of that extra security. so it makes you wonder that he was even -- i hate to -- maybe another two and a half years but i am not confident in two and a half years we are actually going to be able to leave. at some point, i think we just have to. if i was making the decision i

would say afghanistan is a tribe tribal nation and always has been. you know the toll-free number. love to herear from you. >> the bill press show, new on current tv. ♪ all have in common? sam adams! last year we brewed more than one new beer every week. some we'd been experimenting with for years others...we just found a cool ingredient. many we brewed just once to see how they would taste. why? -- because at sam adams we love beer. ♪ ♪

new 5 rpm gum. stimulate your senses. eliot spitzer joins the new news

network. >>this show will be unique because we will not settle for the easy answers. we're here because we're independent. ♪♪ ♪ >> taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> joe cicirioni at the top of the hour on the full-court press. we have asked you on facebook on president's going to afghanistan.

was it good to go or a campaign stop as republicans are claiming? lopac laughed out loud. if they didn't go, they would be slamming him. they don't just talk a good game. they live it. he has to govern no matter what republicans do. they slam him for waking up in the morning. it's really getting boring. how about that renhendricks general we told you about friday. i went to the state store in the small town of paxutawny and they said thanks for the lead. >> mitt romney said we shouldn't be spending bill you don't know of dollars to get one man yet he, himself, is spending millions to get one man's job. excellent point. keep your comments coming on facebook or twitter or e-mail.

love to hear from you. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ >> good morning, everybody. welcome on this wednesday, may 2nd. welcome to the full-court press, your new morning show on current tv. i am bill press. liberal and proud of it. good to have you with us this morning as we do a little roundtable of all of the issues of the day here in our nation's capitol, around the country and around the globe. the big news, of course is the president's surprise visit to afghanistan. but, also, ann romney yesterday

said that mitt romney isn't as boring as he seems that inside he is just a wild and crazy guy. and get this, she said it on cbs morning news wearing a tee shirt that cost $990. holy cow. why can't she be like michelle obama? why can't she wear j. crew instead? just one of the stories we will get into here this morning this morning. but first, with this current tv news update out in los angeles, here is our good friend, jacki schechner. hey, jacki. >> hi, bill. good morning everyone. i don't even know what a thousand dollars tee shirt would look like. looks like newt gingrich is ready to endorse mitt romney. first he has to drop out of the race. >> that's going to happen at 3:00 p.m. in arlington, virginia but he is going to officially endorse mitt romney in a couple of weeks when the two can appear together. gingrich is out but ron paul is still in the race. and the washington times is serving up a spoiler as in, hey

mitt romney, ron paul is looking to spineoil your convention or to complicate it a little bit. paul loyalists have blocked half of mitt romney's preferred delegates and they have been scheming in georgia and alaska. paul's goal is to have an flew on the g.o.p. platform come fall. one of his advisors said no candidate is doing more with less than any other presidential candidate in modern history. today is the first day of new ethics training for the secret service in the wake of the scandal in columbia last month. congressman elisha cummings is going to be the guest speak her. he is the ranking democrat on the committee. he is going to talk about the agency's excellent and how the agents need to work together to weed out the bad apples.

they have courses for some 5,000 secret service employees. we are in chat current.com/bill press. we will be right back. [ woman ] oh, my gosh -- it's so good! [ kristal ] we're just taking a sample of all our different items in our festival of shrimp so we can describe them to our customers. [ male announcer ] red lobster's festival of shrimp starts now! for just $12.99, pair any two of 9 exciting shrimp creations like new barbeque glazed shrimp or crab stuffed shrimp. the crab-stuffed shrimp are awesome! [ woman ] very creamy. that's a keeper! [ woman #2 ] sweet, smoky. [ man ] delicious! [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] any combination just $12.99! [ woman ] so what are ya'lls favorites? [ group ] everything! [ laughter ] we're servers at red lobster. and we sea food differently.

i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care

for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take any planned medical or dental procedures and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. having afib not caused by a heart valve problem increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk with pradaxa. we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct.

>>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> yeah, ann romney said mitt is not as boring as he seems. inside, he is really a wild and crazy guy. we certainly haven't seen that side of him yet. what do you say? hello, everybody. good morning. good morning. and welcome. welcome to the full-court press. coming to you live coast to coast on your favorite progressive talk radio station and on current tv. good to have you with us whether you are listening and watching or both as we tackle the big

stories of the day. here from our nation's capitol and we've got lots of good company today starting this hour with a good friend, head of the ploughshares fund. >> good morning. >> bright and early this morning with lots to talk about. joining us, of course our entire team we brought in just now, peter okay burn and dan henning. >> we weren't going to come in. >> until they heard you were here and cyprian. >> videographer/fly killer. >> he keeps all rodents and insects out. >> what a man to have. >> out of the studio. that's right. everybody needs, you know, an insect buster. and we are going to involve you in the conversation, of course. we saved a seat for the table as we like to say, saved a seat at the table for you. you get there by calling

866-55-press. so yesterday, joe, you keep up with all of the news. i am sure that you saw that probably the most important event of the day yesterday, far far more important than the president's trip to afghanistan is this announcement by video from newt gingrich. >> i want to take this opportunity to give you an insider advance notice that on wednesday, i will be officially suspending campaign as part of a precedent. >> so yesterday. >> newt who? >> exactly. he announces he is going to suspend it today. and i think it's only appropriate. don't you, peter? >>. >> farewell mr. gingrich. >> a fond fairrewell to newt ending his campaign. >> he had a great campaign in terms of covering it and enjoying it. >> we are going to miss him. did campaign ever start?

>> yes. he started it up. it collapsed. who knows? the president said there is still time. >> there he is. he says he is going to campaign for mitt romney and mitt said, no. no. no. whatever. anything but that. go back to writing books or giving speeches. there we go. in addition to having having joe cirincionen, bill burton -- i saw a friend bill butler. >> he can come on another day. >> another day. bill burton will be here, head of priorities usa. >> but first. >> this is the full court press. >> serious headlines. >> president obama is set to welcome the kentucky ncaa

championship men's basketball team to the white house on friday. one kentuckian that will not be there, senator mitch mcconnell, he passed on the invitation because the kentucky y is saturday -- derby report is saturday. some don't think it was sincere since obama new congress was not in session and new the other didby was on saturday so he did the ceremony on purpose. this friday, he is celebrating the wildcat's victory over kansas. >> today is wednesday. how long do you pre-party for the derby? >> yeah. >> you know, why can't -- there are planes. there are flights every day from here to kentucky. >> believe it or not. >> political nerds were happy yesterday to hear the cast of the west wing reunited but for two minutes only. martin sheen dulaney hill and several other cast members teamed up with funny or die for a psa about walking every day

for exercise. it features the cast doing what they did a lot on the show when it was on the air, holding meetings in the white house while walking down hallways known as the walk and talk. >> yeah. don't have time to sit and talk in the white house much these days. >> walk and talk. and the best stage plays of the year were announced yesterday and once a musical about a flower seller in a street musician earned 11 nods for best musical. others in the category included newsies, nice work if you can get it. nice work and porgy and bess earned 10 apiece. broad broadways cost $75 million. >> no. >> tonies will be awarded june 10th. >> also, a best actress award for the woman who -- i forget her name who plays end of the rainbow, a brand-new play. going to see it next weekend. very excited about that.

joe cirincione we have been talking about afghanistan but another breaking story this morning, this chinese dissident who was able to take refuge sought refuge and was given refuge in the u.s. embassy has been released this morning to rejoin his family and to get hospital care and the chinese government say he is -- and he says he is a freeman. what do you hear? >> this is chin wkwan jin has been under house arrest, particularly issues protesting the forced sterilization of women in china's two-child policy. he hasn't been accused of a crime but held by a gang of local police and thugs that have kept him there. he has tried to escape before. this is a dramatic escape blind, he travels hundreds of miles and ends up in the u.s. embassy.

the administration has a very delicate situation on its hands. remember secretary of state hillary clinton plans today -- >> thes on her way. >> she is in china today for two days of previously scheduled talks on economic and security policies. human rights has not been a big issue between the united states and china, partially because the united states has actually sought to downplay it. but you can't avoid this. it raises some key, fundamental issues underscoring the big differences that still exist between our system and the chinese system. >> do you think he is safe in china? >> his lawyers say he is safe. his lawyers say that he has been assured he will have his freedom and be reunited with his family after medical treatment. we don't know what kind of deal has been worked out. presumably this man wouldn't have left without some sort of assurance. >> and could the united states have kept him there with the secretary of state arriving? >> it would have been an awkward situation. as it is china is demanding an apology from the united states. they are insisting that the

united states apologize for letting this man, what they say, assisting this man to enter the embassy. i doubt very much you are going to see any kind of apology from the united states. >> so do you think that he will continue to or be allowed to continue to spook out in china? or has he sauté sigh lum here in the united states? >> it's hard to say how this is going to play out. there is buzzing on the internet dissent is prohibited. people on their facebook pages are donning sunglasses the kind of sunglasses he wears, he is blind, to show solidarity with him. but so far, there has been nothing like demonstrations or petition drives or anything like that. this is a continuing story we will have to track it closely in the weeks ahead. >> on afghanistan, you and i were talking earlier and i told the viewers about my big

surprise arriving at the whitehouse thinking the schedule published was the schedule of the president's events when he had left at midnight monday night for afghanistan. did you see this trip coming? >> absolutely not. in hindsight, it's lom cal. the an ves reof the date of the killing of bin laden in the country country where the attacks were staged to sign a strategic partnership with president karzai, it's all lodge cam. we should have seen it coming. no one saw it coming. this is perhaps the most dramatic foreign policy trip of obama's presidency, a man who knows how to stage foreign policy. >> let's talk about the substance of it. the president signed this agreement. >> yes. >> 23,000 troops coming home by the end of the summer, but he said, we are going to be there at least until the end of 2014. is. >> so this is both reassureing and troubling. it reassure the afghans who were

concerned aboutp after the soviets left and were worried they would be left in a lunchrch. the president is the assuring them they would not be. there is a price tag a considerable amount of aid is being pledged somewhere between 2.3 billion and 4 billion a year. so that's somewhere between 20 and 40 billion over the next 10 years, we are going to pledge. >> 2014 to 2024? >> yes. >> that's the kind of aid package people are looking at. you know, it costs over $2,000,000,000 a year just to maintain the afghan security forces. afghanistan can't pay for that. it's the third poorest country in the world. someone has to. that would be us. it assure the afghans they will have this continuing security relationship with the united states. there is nothing in the agreement about force levels. people have incorrectly reported that all u.s. troops will leave afghanistan after 2014. no. that's not true.

the combat operations will end. >> right. >> at 2014. people are talking about maintaining troop levels of 45,000 to 60,000. so it's unclear. >> that big a presence? >> yes. >> so the congressional budget office, for example, uses the 45,000 troop level as their baseline for estimating future costs for this war. that would cost somewhere around $50,000,000,000 a year to maintain that level of troops or $500,000,000,000 over the next 10 years. >> let me make sure i hear what you are saying so that after 2014, when all combat operations have ceased, there could still be 45 to 60,000 american troops remaining in afghanistan. the president went out of his way to say any force levels would be determined with the congress. >> he said that would be

counterterrorism and continued training? >> that's right. most experts say that's where we should go. this is a very unpopular war. the president is the clearly articulating a popular policy. most security experts say the kind of missions should be counter terror, not nation building. >> here to me is the rub. right? and the achille's heel: this is built on the premise at 2014 the afghan government will be equipped and ready to take over and to govern that country whereas today, karzai doesn't have any inflewuence outside of kabul kabul? >> this is a corrupt, faction-ridden government. karzai is not very popular in his own country. so the future of his government is unclear i think you can

expect a fragmented rule the goff government appears, after the u.s. forces end operations, the ungovernorable, that's why a significant that president obama said the u.s. is in direct negotiations with the taliban, trying to negotiate a peace agreement with them, what shape that agreement would take no one knows, but those -- that's not a popular position with karzai. he doesn't want to do that but really has no choice at this point. >> so in the last few warix it's been pretty rocky. right? >> afghan troops have fired on nato troops. >> the burning of the koran. karzai was visibly angry at the united states. yesterday was like peace and love.

what happened? >> well, the president of the united states comes to your country. this is a big move and he is getting a lot of what he wants. he is getting the strategic partnership agreement, getting continued aid. he is being assured of continued presence. so karzai got a lot of gifts from the united states. >> and 10 years' worth of cash. right? >> right. his life line is assured. he's got, you know, a revenue stream that will continue for a decade. >> so the president makes this surprise, powerful historic visit to afghanistan, speaks to the american people was it what the american people and what the people of afghan want to hear? joe cirincione from ploughshares.org. in studio with us. we will take your calls and get you involved in the conversation at 866-55-press. ♪ >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. ♪ puts their money where their mouth is. yup. [ dennis ] claim service so good, it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can always count on them. unlike randy over there.

>> overwhelming majority of the country says tax the rich, >> that's awesome! ah, claim trouble. [ dennis ] you should just switch to allstate, and get their new claim satisfaction guarantee. hey, he's right man. [ dennis ] only allstate puts their money where their mouth is. yup. [ dennis ] claim service so good, it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can always count on them. unlike randy over there. that's one dumb dude. ♪ ♪ the new claim satisfaction guarantee. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america.

♪ >> this is the bill press show. live on your radio and current tv. >> twenty-five minutes after the hour. we are going to jump down to north carolina in the next segment and talk about the ugly anti-same section-sex issue. >> joe cirincione in studio with us. welcome back. ploughshares, the english spelling ploughshares.org a great organization in terms of

promoting world peace and the end of nuclears weapons. let's talk to a couple of our viewers. eric calling from san diego. >> i agree with you about obama we are moving them out in a reasonable fashion and time. i believe we have to protect our country by keeping our troops there to make sure al-qaeda and other terrorists aren't planning to attacking america. the last thing this president needs is to create another bin laden. the president kind of made that argument, different he that connect get out sooner because we have to be sure that the coast is clear basically. >> yes. he is staging what many would think is a responsible drawdown so we have about 90,000 troops in afghanistan now the result

of a surge the president ordered in the first year of his presidency. we expect that to come down by the end of this year to somewhere around 68,000 which would be the '-surge levels and what happens after that has yet to be determined. i expect they are going to continue to drop. once you stop the counter insurge he knows see mission, once you stop these combat patrols, it really isn't any need for tens of thousands of troops. you can go down to, as you mentioned earlier, maybe 45,000, maybe 20,000, the kind of levels we are now looking at for iraq. >> i have to ask you about this at the risk of not getting to the rested of our callers, mitt romney, his foreign policy advisers on the jo be forwo week. you know him richard grinnel. i have debated him. we had a very heated debate' couple of years on fox and friends early in the morning. we have our issues. but what happened to him is just shameful, just shameful. he is an openly gay man.

he makes some provocative, outrageous statements. when he was hired by campaign gu he was forced out by the far right supporters of governor romney who objected to him being gay, who made -- raised serious questions about whether he supported gay marriage and said this is an acceptable. you can't have a man like this on your campaign. the romney campaign apparently buckled and he resigned yesterday. >> the tough, mitt romney. what does he stand for? he doesn't stand for anything. >> strong shoulders, square jaw, weak positions. >> no backbone? >> no backbone certainly not when it comes to gay americans. >> check out ploughshares.org and joe cirincione always good to have you in the studio. can't come back often enough. >> thankful, bill. >> thank you.

♪ this is the bill press

♪ on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> it's 33 minutes after the hour, the bill press show coming to you live from coast to coast from our radio stayed yes and in our t.v. studio in washington, d.c. if you don't have a copy of the swat obama hate machine," my latest book, get it by going to our website at bill billpressshow.com. get your signed copy, tell us

how you want it signed. we will get out to you right away. one week from today, a big vote in north carolina. one of these constitutional amendments to and the constitution to limit marriage to only a union between one man and one woman. the opponents are waging a very strong, strong battle against it. and things are looking good. we wanted to check too somebody who knows north carolina politics better than anybody i know, host of the local edge radio on our great affiliate down in nashville, north carolina 880, the revolution, blake butler welcome. >> bill, thanks so much for letting me join you this morning. >> good to have you with us. i mean i have crashed your program so many times, you know. we've got to return the favor here. >> that's right. we love it when you come to asheville. in fact everyone come to asheville. it's a great place to visit. >> the plaintiffs. i can say that, and peter can tell you, too. >> as much as we like -- i love

asheville. as much as we have blake on the phone, it's better when we are in studio because he brings us corn cornbread. >> we just raised the bar on new belgium expanding operations. we have 12, 13 micro breweries here that has given us the title two years beer u.s.a. so we look forward to you guys coming here again. >> when i heard about that beer city, u.s.a., i thought portland oregon was where they had all of the micro breweries. >> the last time we were out there, i made the of going do a bar and found a bud light. one said you can't be seen drinking a bud light in asheville. >> that's why we banned you from asheville for six months.

i am glad you haven't come back. you wouldn't be able to get in the speed limits what's wrong with it? >> everything is wrong with it because it discriminates. north carolina is the last line of defense. every southern state has this on their state constitution. we are trying really hard to defy that trend. the polls are neck and neck right now. the it says the only thing the state has to recognize is a marriage between 1 man and one woman. the danger of this is letting this pass and the courts interpret it, those benefits will be taken away. so it's a very dangerous amendment. we should be working on larger problems here in north carolina and it's a diversion. i have heard you talk about that on your show before. i mean we should be trying to

fix early childhood education, but we are spending 5, $6 million on this marriage amendment fight as the pro forces are calling it. let me add one more thing. we are seeing a surge in early voting numbers. we know the people in north carolina are plugged in on this issue and they are voicing their opinion. but it's anyone's guess right now, bill. i would say from the latest poll did, it's neck and neck. >> but, you know it seems to be, also, going against the trend, blake. you know, maybe years ago, all of these states had measures like this on the ballot but lately what we have seen is state after state recognizing same-sex marriage and with no problems. right? >> that's true. >> life goes on. >> in fact there was a couple of organizations here, and a television station that called every ceo across north carolina and they could not find one that would speak for the amendment because they know it's bad for business. >> yeah. yeah. >> like i said before, it's

touch and go here in north carolina like every economy across the nation. why should we be doing anything that is bad for business is beyond me. there is a lot of far-reaching consequences here, bill. i think what has happened is once the education process has spread across our state, people are questioning. it looks like the against side has some momentum here i am doing my part. i have devoted a segment every single day on my show to talking why you should -- or really discussing why you should vote against the amendment. >> you know, you are doing your part. you are, and wanted to do our part this morning. >> that's why we were excited to have you on the program so all of the people in north carolina and around the country know what's at stake here the other thing, blake, as i understand it, and not being a north carolinaians, i haven't been following it that closely but if you vote against this amendment. right? that doesn't say i am for

same-sex marriage or doesn't legalize same-sex marriage? >> bill, same-sex marriage is already illegal here in north carolina. there is already a law on the books. >> is that right. >> forbidding gay marriage but the pro side wants to see this on our constitution like every other southern state. >> i got it. >> as we see these fundamentalist christians pushing for it, they usually cannot come up with any other reason they are pushing it other than levit cuss 18 you:22 and a couple of other choice passages from the old testament. i have had people on the show and no one wants to talk about the new testament and any interpretation of what christianity is all about and that's where we are seeing some of these forces within the baptist church and other faith communities push against amendment 1 recognizing that there is diversity in our community, our state, other states and cities and you said it before, other states have already, you know, pushed forward and recognized that this

is the way it is. it's reality 2012 and these guys in north carolina are still trying to governor from the bible. it's not going to work. >> they don't want to talk about the other parts of levit cussicus -- leviticus, about the shellfish. >> most of us wouldn't even be here right now, you know, if we took the bible piece by piece. but et cetera true. the republicans have quite a few primaries and they have a lot of cash. they have one more sunday to push it from the pulpit. so it's anybody's guess, but for all of those people north carolina folks, if you are on the fence, go out there vote against it amendment 1 discriminates. it's as simple as that. you can use that as your talking point and the reason you are voting against it. >> blake butler is the host of local edge radio 880, the revolution at just every afternoon down there, you are on from 3:00 to -- >> 3:00 to 6:00, and drive time

as we call it. listen, i really appreciate everything you do and listening to you. i have learned a lot from you, as you know, we walked in here without any experiences. >> hey, i start the day there on 880 the revolution. you have to get up with bill press in the morning and now on current tv. blake, before you go, i have got to ask you: so, you know this president obama carried north carolina in 2012. >> right. >> what do you think his chances are in 2012 and do you think all of the organization that's been put together against amendment 1 white be able to help obama? >> i think if that collective voice speaks on next tuesday and says we don't want this in our southern state, that's a good sign because the independents will vote against amendment 1. but bill honestly what choice does any voter have at this point? the other side, the republicans have presented nothing. there is no ideas, no one's excited about mitt romney.

so the reality is we can continue the progress and support president obama. as a progressive i have my problems with him, too, you know, on certain issues. so do my listeners. but still, overall, we support what he is doing and continues to do and i just want to move forward. this presidential nomination processes has really been drawn out. i said on the radio the other day, it's like groundhog day and mitt romney is running for president every single day. >> we have a few more days to go before we find out. >> it's so painful. are you coming down to the con vemings. >> you are damn right. >> a lot of parties, bill. >> the whole team going to party in charlotte. it would be pretty xwash asking. >> that's another good reason to vote no. >> there you go, bill. thank you for the words of

encouragement. >> thanks so much and talk to you soon. >> amendment 1. this has just gone totally against the grain. and i mean it would be so great to have north carolina as blake put it buck the trend and just say, we don't care about what mississippi and alabama have done. north carolina is different. north carolina is independent. north carolina does not discriminate. vote "no" on amendment 1. ♪ >> on your radio and on current t.v., this is the big press show.

eliot spitzer joins the new news network. >>we will drill down on the day's top stories in search of facts that inform. ♪

>> on your radio and on current t.v., this is the bill press show. >> it's about 13 minutes before the top of the hour here on this wednesday edition of the full-court press. it's kind of a -- maybe if you haven't already done so, you better get started for spring cleaning. but one reality you are going to have to accept. look around the house, some of the window treatment, blinds or shutters are not going to make it through spring cleaning. they have been there so long. time to think about getting some new ones. no better place to go for getting new blinds or drapes or shutters for your home than blinds.com. >> that's what i discovered. carol and i discovered, when we were looking for new drapes for my home. that's what peter and his wife discovered, their home as well. and we have -- we have told you

about our experience that we have from many of our listeners have had the same experience. they have blinds.com. the best election and the best service. i will send you a free sample. they will tell you how to measure the drapes. if you get it wrong, they will tell you how to correct it. even send you knew stuff if you get it wrong. if you really need it, they can send an expert installer. so all kind of advantages. check them out. blinds.com. get free color samples, free shipping and no sales tax in most states, plus, as i mentioned, an expert installer if you need one. go to blinds.com for prices that absolutely crush home improvement store prices. >> that's the other thing. their prices are the lowest you will find anywhere for the best quality stuff. blinds.com is a website, blinds.com again it is blinds.com big news you won't hear anywhere elsing that is

the dow jones at its highest level since 2007, since december, 2007. it soared up there yesterday going up 108 points ending at 13,321. we always hear on the news isn't it funny, peter, about when the dow goes down. oh, my god the dow crashed. >> 100 points. panic. panic. get out of the market. sell your stock. the obama economy is taking another free-fall. and yet, when the dow keeps going up and up and up, nobody talks about it. it's sort of like airplane crashes. you only hear about all of the planes thousands and thousands and thousands of planes that take off and land safely. we like to give you the good news about the market and the good news about the economy and the other good news about this

is that what really sparked this big lift in the dow yesterday was that the manufacturing sector has shown a lot of growth and that means jobs are coming back. back. >> that's good news indeed. wanted to share that with you. you almost had to feel sorry for mitt romney yesterday. he was trying to make a big deal of the fact that, oh my god there should be no celebration, and there should be no giving president obama credit for what he did a year ago, a year ago today, by announcing the capture and the killing of osama bin laden. no. no. mitt romney said, it was wrong for president obama to -- and the white house to even talk about. well, with his trip yesterday to afghanistan, mitt romney might as well have gone out and played golf or something. >> seriously. >> i mean it just eclipsed anything that romney was trying

to say or do he tried to make up for it by going to a fire house with rudei guiliani. >> i expressed our appreciation to the men and women who serve in the firefighters and among first responders here in new york and to acknowledge the special place that this is. >> here is what's so hypocritical about that, of course. we know -- i mean, those firefighters and police officers and the first responders, the emt folks, they deserve all of the honor that we can -- and thanks that we can give them. so many of them lost their lives on september 11th. eleven people in that fire house, he said yesterday alone but the fact is that these are all public employees, union members and mitt romney is their enemy. mitt romney supported scott walker, supported john kaysich and mitch dan yellows and everybody who wants to do away

with unions and make every state a right to work state. mitt romney is anti-working men and women, anti-working families, anti-union and then he goes to a fire house. i wish they would have not let him walk in the fire house. i hate the fact that they pretend that they could ever get along with this guy. but when it came to after two days of saying, obama deserves no credit for getting osama bin laden, mid mitt romney yesterday changed his tune. >> i acknowledged a year ago when this was announced that the president deserved credit for the decision he made. i continue to believe that and certainly would have taken that action, myself. >> uh-huh. yeah. and he continued. yeah. if i were president, no doubt, i would have done the same damn thing. >> this is a person who had done terrible harm to america and who

represented a continuing threat to a civilized people throughout the world and had i been president of the united states, i would have made the same decision the president made, which was to remove him. >> yeah, 0 yeah? well, then why did mitt romney say that the president's move -- why did he say a year ago that it was ill -- quote ill-timed and i will -considered. >> that's what mitt romney said and why did mid romney also say that we should not be spending millions of dollars going out in a search for just one man? see, mitt romney's problem is that we are not stupid. mitt romney's problem is that we got a good memory. and mitt romney's problem is that we got google and we've got -- we can google what he said a year ago. we can google what he said four years ago. and we hold him to his word. yeah. too bad, mit.

loser. >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. ♪ [ growls ] lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate.

>>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) former two term governor, jennifer granholm, is politically direct on current tv >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office.

♪ >> radio meets television the bill press show. now on current tv. >> all right, every day at this time, we like to bring you up to date on what the president has on his schedule today. from now on, after yesterday, we are going to put an asterisks, just consider it with an after the risks alongside of it because yesterday, i gave you the president's schedule and told you i was surprised that

there were no public events on the schedule and it looked like the president was just going to kick back at the whitehouse and relax all day. little did i know that yesterday's schedule was all a rous that he actually was on his way to afghanistan. what i tell you today may or may not the president's schedule. as published back to the white house on marcheen 1 at about 1:40 p.m., goes right to work at 3:405. he will welcome 10 different ambassadors to the oval office to present them new ambassadors to the united states to present them their credentials and then no rest for the weary, the president has two campaign events this evening back to back, at the w hotel just across the street from the white house. so as far as we know, the president will be back in -- at the whitehouse and back in action today, and we are back in action to top the next hour with bill burton from priorities

u.s.a. and julie mason. >> this is the bill press show.

hello, everybody. good wednesday morning. it is wednesday, may 2nd. welcome to the full-court press, the new morning show here on current tv. good to see you today. we've got lots to talk about with the news happening here in our nation's campitol, around the country and around the globe. we are on talk of all of it, of course, taking your calls and giving you a chance to talk about the biggest news of the day, president obama's unscheduled visit to afghanistan catching a lot of white house

reporters, including me, by total surprise. the good news is the president said 23,000 more american troops will be home before the -- before fall at the end of the summer. the bad news is, the president says we are still going to be in afghanistan until the event of 2014. in other words, this war is going to drag on for another two and a half years. we will get into that and a whole lot more but first, with today's current tv news update, we go out to los angeles and say big good morning to jacki schechner. hi, jacki. >> hi, bill. good morning to you, too, and good morning to everyone. the obama campaign is out with a new web video this morning, and its tag line is newt gingrich frankly not mitt romney's biggest supporter, the report came the same day newt gingrich is going to drop out of the race and show support for mitt romney. here is how the video starts. >> as a man who wants to run for the president of the united states who can't be honest, why

should we expect him to level about anything. >> it features newt gingrich on a host of items. >> the first ads of the general election season the $3.7 million ad buy will be in 9 swing states and airing greenville, south carolina with the hopes of reaching north carolina. there is no word on the specific content of the advertisement but on the super p.a.c.'s website, the ad that is most prominently featured has mitt romney or sellbrates mitt romney's success as turning around the massachusetts economy, rescuing olympics and turning around companies when he was in the corporate world. as bill discussed earlier this morning, romney spokesman richard grinnal, he was to be

the national security spokesman. he is openly gay. social conservatives have been concerned and upset about his open support of gay marriage. we will be right back with more after this break. stay tuned. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] hamburger helper cheeseburger macaroni. now even cheesier and tastier. helpers. forty dishes, all delicious. [ male announcer ] for some reason those five food groups sound a whole lot better when you put them in a taco shell instead of a pyramid. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican.

i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care

for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take any planned medical or dental procedures and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. having afib not caused by a heart valve problem increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk with pradaxa. we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct.

>>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... >> broadcasting around the nation, on your radio, and on current tv. this is the bill press show. >> all aboard. we are heading for kabul. >> right. >> unscheduled trip. on our way back. it's the full court price on wednesday, may 2nd, great to see you today. thank you for joining us as we come to you live coast to coast from our nation's capitol and our little t.v. and radio studio here on capitol hill. good to have you with us today. as we tackle the issues of the

day with two good friends in studio, bill burton is the head of priorities u.s.a. bill, welcome back. >> hey bill. >> super p.a.c. supporting the president's reelection and julie mason does a great job on sirius xm radio every day but that's in the afternoon. so in the morning she can be here with us. >> i am free to come here with the bills. >> non-compete clause. >> burton. >> and still a board member of the white house correspondent's association. >> for a few more months. absolutely. so i want a little respect. >> there she was at head table. very, very impressive. sitting alongside of jimmy kimmel. >> yes. we bonded. we are deeply in love. >> did you write any of his jokes? >> absolutely not. just the funny ones. >> yeah. >> root out the bad ones. >> there is -- i want you guys to know i arrived this morning. again, we have so many books in studio. this one, on my desk, "the real

romney". >> that's going to be staring at you when you walk in to work. >> is that written by friend or foe? it's not obvious from the photo. >> the boston globe. yesterday, on cbs morning news, ann romney told us who the real mitt romney is. here she is. >> i love the opportunity of letting people see a side of mitt that. >> what side of that? >> he is nice funny. >> why hasn't that come out? >> you know, it's going -- you know, it's an interesting thing that, quen, people like to keep him in that narrative. so it's nice for me as a wife to be able to say now look. this is the person that's really there. this is the boy that i knew. >> yeah. >> i still look at him as the boy i met in high school when he was playing all of the jokes and really just being crazy, pretty crazy.

>> crazy. >> wild and crazy man. little did you no? right. >> i think he is hilarious. his cars have elevators. isn't that funny? >> that's very good. and the thing was that ann made this statement on cbs morning news yesterday wearing a tee shirt. a tee shirt. a silk tee shirt, a silk tee shirt. do you have the picture. >> yeah. >> you can see here on the monitor. this tee shirt, someone went to the reed krakoff store. it cost $990. now, can they do anything without showing how rich they are? >> i tell you what. i am of the view what you pay for -- >> what did you pay for that white shirt. >> i am under that. i am of the view ann romney should be off limits but if you look at what mitt romney is wearing, that tie probably cost at least double that.

which is also hilarious. >> i don't think ann romney is off limits if she is going to be campaigning and giving policy speeches and getting involved. i think she is totally fair game. i think kids are off limits but i think spouses are in bounds. >> even adult children? >> if they get involved in the campaign, yes. >> here is what julie mason's role. >> why can't she be like michelle? why can't she wear j. crew? >> you know, on that, i just remember in 2007 and 2008 when people would go after mrs. obama, i was enraged about it because, you know, you never know if they even signed up for this willingly you know. they are sort of -- they may just be supportive and along for the ride. you know, my view is that i. >> i think you have to be careful about wearing clothes that are so expensive especially when somebody can go down to madison and say, hey what's that tee shirt cost? you know what i mean? lots and lots and lots going on. the republicans were trying to

make a big deal. let's start right there, with the fact that this was the anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden and the white house or campaign -- the obama campaign, the video with president bill clinton saying obama had done the right thing. i think that's fair game? >> if you consider this election is a choice between two men and the kind of decisions they would make in national security situation, it's absolutely fair game. you have to -- listen to what the president's words were the other day we press conference with the japanese prime minister minister. >> he said i take candidates at their word. mitt romney said he would not cross the border into the pakistan and get bad guys. why would we believe him yesterday when he is sitting with rudy giuliani saying yeah, i would have made that same decision. real profile in courage to say that over a slice of pepperoni pizza as opposed to being in the situation room, sitting there with, you know hillary clinton and joe biden and the national

security team and actually having to make a tough call. >> it did look like a little bit of whine okay their part. didn't it -- whining? didn't it, julie. >> yes. if president bush had gotten bid lauden we would hear it morning noon and night. there would be action figures. >> aircraft keir year on the south lawn. >> i mean they would go. the man is with it. and now, to claim that it's really out of bounds to politicize it, it's short memories during the -- it was the 2008 campaign and even before that in the 2004 campaign we saw 9-11 imagery in campaign commercials, but the idea of polit sizing this is not a new one. president obama tries to hold himself above politics as usual and tries to portray himself as a different kind of politician. it's a big surprise he is just a politician trying to get re-elected like all of the others, everyone acts shocked and horrified the that's not a fair standard. >> no. i am always sitting in the back

of the press room at the whitehouse, you know. i always get annoyed when the people up front say, isn't this a political event? i mean goes to a college campus. isn't this just political? well duh. right? >> well, again, yes, no. >> you want to talk to students about student loans? i think going to a college campus is -- >> it sort of makes sense. >> sort of makes sense. >> you want to talk to the nation about afghanistan, going to afghanistan and doing it makes sense. >> if you look at the tone of the president's remarks last night, he talked about the half million men and women who served in afghanistan. all of whom made some sackrifice to their families. he talked about the people that lost their lives, the goals we accomplished. that wasn't a political speech. this is not necessarily a politic completely political time. this is a moment when we are talking about how are weind we winding down or mission in afghan arlington. he was handed two wars. he ended one and one is on the

way to being done. >> we are in an election year. all will be seen through the scrum of politics. all of his predecessors did it. the white house keeps denying it's happen. >> that's what has the reporters screaming about it. just admit what you are doing. >> it is kind of funny. maybe they feel they have to. i find it funny, wink wink. but you must admit, i am with you, bill, this trip is always number one, the right thing to do. it's an important thing to do. it's a historic thing to do. at the same time, it served a purpose of just kind of squashing all of this republican whining about what this anniversary was about because the president showed that we have gone sort of full-circle. right? >> right. >> the attacks against the united states were planned in afghan arlington. 10 years ago went into afghanistan to get them. a year ago, we got the number 1 guy and now, 10 years later, we are announcing sort of the end of the operation there. >> right. >> in a nice package last night.

>> when you think back to when the president laid out his strategy, he said three things. he said we are going to stop the taliban's momentum, deny al-qaeda a safe haven and train up the afghani security forces so they can protect themselves and fight the taliban, themselves. now, ahead of schedule, there is over 300,000 folks who are members of afghan security forces and they are going to be in a place where they can take on the security of their own country. this has been a successful mission. i think the president explaining to the american people how we are winding it down makes a lot of sense whether you are in an election year or not. >> talking with bill -- i keep calling you bill burton. >> that's okay. i like being anonymous. this isn't even my real hair color. >> you wouldn't be the first one to walk in here with the same hair color. >> you die -- dye your hair that color. >> nothing i can do about it. just leave me alone, all of you. bill burton is the head of

priorities u.s.a., julie mason with sirius xm radio. now, bill, you have a new ad out. >> yeah. >> to play and talk a little bit about. talking about mr. romney and who is really behind him. >> he is the $200 million man. and big oil's finger prints are all over him. big oil's pledged 200 million to help mitt romney. big oil, and billions in special tax breaks. when you fill up your tank, remember who is in the tank for big oil. mitt romney, the $200 million man. priorities u.s.a. are responsible for the content of this advertising. >> a little harsh on mitt romney. >> damn, that's a good ad. julie, did you see that. >> big oil is just the cartoon villain of this election cycle. big oil. >> but he is really, i mean, you

have got the facts there. >> right. >> he really is in their -- he is their defender. >> he is their guy. >> to give them the tax breaks. he is their guy, mr. bain capital. >> there is a reason that the koch brothers and the big oil guys are getting behind mitt romney. it's because they know if mitt romney is elected, he is going to do what he is telling folks. >> obama warrants to cut sub skid employees deregulate the industry and protect subsidies. if they make a $200 million investment they will make it back in the first term. this is an investment they ant anticipate getting a return on. this is just talking in frank terms to the american people. >> just providing some facts. >> just the facts. >> and with that, you have a piece in politico "high gas prices benefit romney." "right. >> how so? >> you have got to look. the people who are backing him, the big oil guys are making billions and billions of dollars in profit every single day.

when gas prices are high they make more money. where are they putting that money? into mitt romney's campaign. so if mitt romney is benefitting politically from high gas prices, how could the american people trust him to bring down the the price of gas prices when his biggest backers support gas prices being high and bant to continue this path we are on. >> that's just so dependent on oil for our key energy source. >> you know, on a related issue, julie, yesterday, the dow surged up 108 points. it's at the highest that it's been since december 2007. so sualmost start feeling sorry for mitt romney. he keeps saying, this economy, obama has done such a lousy job. it keeps getting better. not as fast as we wanted. >> we are going to get some jobs numbers on fridays. that will be another test. it puts republicans in this terrible spot because what? they are going to cheer for a bad economy? because that's what they have to -- that's what they have to wish for and hope for.

it's their best cudgel against president obama. >> as the economy gets better, then they switch to, well -- >> it should be better. >> it should be better. >> even better. things are getting better but we would make things more magically better. if only rich people were richer, everything would be better. >> we would have done it faster. right? >> right. >> didn't bring it back like fast enough. >> that's right. >> i find that -- and that's their -- that's their whole case. isn't it? >> basically. mitt romney's case on the economy is you look at his life and the private sector where he made a lot of money for himself and for his partners. >> right. >> that's supposedly the reason that he would do well for the american people. but you look at the cost, the human cost to the way that he made money and then you look at the result when he was governor of massachusetts. there were 47th in the nation in job creation. it would have been 50th if it weren't for hurricane katrina doing so much damage to the gulf states. he brought this down to 47th in job creation. i don't think we want that for our country. >> have we seen the real romney?

i hear him say, you need somebody like a businessman but do we really know what he would do? have we seen the real romney agenda? >> only by accident when he had that hot mic moment at the fundraiser a couple of weeks ago when he was talking about getting rid of hud and really reducing the role of the department of education for the basic function to fight teachers' unions. that was some of the glimpse of his proposed policy making. >> well, basically the bush economic policies accept updated. >> double down on trickle down. you know, i think people -- >> big defending? what was the bush economic policy government expansion. that doesn't make sense because mitt romney is talking about smaller government. >> not paying for anything. >> not paying for a thing. i think people get caught up is mitt romney left? is mitt romney right? he has embraced some far right positions. make no mistake. but i think the thing that really characterizes mitt romney

is less left right and more up/down. he is so focused on making sure that wealthy people do better. it's just his economic philosophy. he thinks the whole current tree does better when rich people are doing well but it's at the expense of the middle class. it literally races taxes on poor people some rich people can have more tax breaks romneyhood. >> bill burton, julie mason and you. we safe -- somehow here we have a seat for you at the table. we will find room now, give us a call at 866-55-press. the full court press. ♪ >> on your radio, on t.v. the bill press show, new on current tv. ♪ building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it.

g?g? it's go time. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle class the guys in the lower end got screwed again. >>i think you know which one we're talking about. the overwhelming majority of the country says"tax the rich, don't go to war." >>just wanted to clarify that.

♪ >> heard around the country andcion current tv, this is the bill press show. >> at 25 minutes after the hour bill burton is the founder and senior strategist for strategies. julie mason from focus channel. >> from 12:00 to 3:00. >> every week day and this is jessica calling from tarabu maine. >> hi, jessica. >> delicious. >> i love the fact you are on t.v. because i am not restricted to one hour a day in my truck. >> all right. very good. glad to be here for you. >> helpful things is one mitt romney really wanted to make nice about the elevator. question say ann has health issues and that's why he's got the elevator.

>> ooh. >> the thing that really gets me is four years ago, everybody was saying do you really want this guy answering the phone at 3:00 in the morning? i think he has proven he is the president who must answer the phone at 3:00 in the morning, make the call and keep us safe. >> jessica, that's a good comment. i remember that. that was a tough ad. >> that was a tough ad. i couldn't understand everything that jessica said but the 3:00 in the morning moment that we were warned about came many times for president obama. and he answered every time and i think, you know part of the r.n. people think he is such a strong leader is that in times of peril, he makes tough decisions. >> i think julie the american people are asked today who do you want answering the phone at 3:00 a.m., mitt romney? >> i think they would be divided. the white house has strained itself to show that president obama made this decision himself, against the advice of some of the people close to him. but i don't know if that's

hagueog hagueography. they have made a point to emphasize that which raises eyebrows around the briefing room. i see you looking at me and not making eye contact with me. >> he made the decision from what we have been told. we have been told a lot of things by the government. >> joe biden and robert gates cautioned against it. you also know damn well if this mission had not succeeded. >> that's correct. >> who would get the blame? >> i mean. >> bill burton how do people reach you? >> which he should check out our websites prioritiesusaaction.org. >> and you don't have to be as wealthy as sheldon adelson to help out. >> we will take checks as little as $100,000 or even $10.

>> this is the bill press show. we will not settle for easy answers. (vo) the former governor of ny eliot spitzer, joins the new news network. >>every night we will drill down on the days top stories in search of facts that inform. >> we don't stop until we get answers that are truthful, serious, and not based on simplistic answers. >>we're here because we're independent. while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance

where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar, nobody protects you from mayhem like allstate.

we are the trail-blazers, the truth seekers. >>every night we will drill down on the day's top stories in search of facts that inform. >>we are the rule breakers. >>be afraid, be very afraid. >>the investigators. >>our system is fundamentally broken. in a time that we're supposed to be worried to death about defecits, they're considering lowering corporate taxes. (vo) we are independent. >>a new scientific study shows conservatives hold science in contempt. that's a shocker. >>we are fearless. >> you who are pragmatic, you who are progressive, you who are impatient, uncle sam needs you. >>we push, we prod. >> my job is to keep it real. the good and the bad. (vo) and we don't do talking

points. >>we will have a continuous conversation. >>the young turks with cenk uygur at 7. >>i can see both side of this issue. >>viewpoint with eliot spitzer at 8. >>transparency is good in government. the more we know the better. >>the war room with jennifer granholm at 9. >>i think that's smart politics. (vo) and there's only one place you'll find us: >> the bill press show. >> coming to you live coast to coast. brought to you by the sheet metals worker union, the great men and women of the sheet metal workers under president joseph nigrel, a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, you bet indeed. i was with him last night at the washington hilt oven. they are here for the building trades association and they were all celebrating completion of

building at ground zero in new york which is all union-built. a magnificent testament to working men and women in this country. in studio with us, we were talking politics and beyond julie mason from sirius xm podis channel. great to see you again. >> great to be back on the show. >> how about that scott brown? here he is? >> what a scamp. >> running for senate reelection, of course, voted against obama care. >> health care reform as it's commonly known. >> right. and voted to repeal it, voted against it and now what's happening with scott brown. >> my goodness his daughter is benefitting from the law. you know one of the more popular provisions was you can keep your kids on your own health insurance until they are about 26. so one of scott brown's lovely daughters is 23 years old and he ensures her on his congressional

health plan -- >> thanks to president obama. >> thanks to president obama. >> he votes against it and then he takes advantage of it. >> i don't see any inconsistent see here. scott brown is handsome. >> so that's what people are supposed to think. he is a movie star. he can get away with anything. >> he said that his objections to the health care law are not inconsistent with using it to insure husband daughter because similar requirements could be mandated at state level. i don't even understand that. i don't understand. >> what a weenie. you can't blame him for taking advantage of it because it's a good provision of the law. >> good provision. >> but then vote for it, dumny so everybody else is able to benefit from all of the provisions of the law. scott brown, just one more strike against him. up in massachusetts. one more strike against mitt romney this morning when richard grinnel, his foreign policy advisor, on the job for two weeks, resigned yesterday. what happened? >> right.

here is the thing, richard grinnel, there were two problems with richard grinnel. one, he said some really unpleasant, sexist things about women on transitwitter. that offended me but he lost his job, apparent because he is gay. >> yeah. >> not for being a sexist jerk and saying horrible things about hillary clinton and rachel maddow. >> which he had said before he was hired by romney. >> sure. >> they hired him? >> despite that public reputation. he went back and tried to scrub his twitter but twitter is forever. but the problem for social conservatives was that he is openly gay. he has pushed for gay marriage and that did not sit well. you know, romney trying to shore up the right flank, trying to get the social conservatives on board. >> what does it say about romney in this guy who had been press secretary. he knew his foreign policy stuff. he had been press secretary for -- >> he was credentialed. he was perfectly credentialed for that.

>> work for bolton? >> and his mustache and george w. bush, who had plenty of gays in his administration, full-up. but i guess grinnel actually resigned. he wasn't like fired but you have to imagine it wasn't a very welcomeing atmosphere. >> he admitted he resigned because the social conservatives put so much pressure on mit. >> right. >> certainly, mitt at least apparently didn't go out of his way to save him and to say, it doesn't matter whether he is gay. he is here because we like his position on foreign policy. >> that's right. there was a great story by michael levinson about the outrage, behind the scenes outrage that the campaign is doing to social conservatives, bachmann and santorum's working and consult with them and they were making outreach to family research councilsel.

the grinnel hiring was not going over with this crowd. romney needs to like shore up the social conservative voters >> you can hear and join on poddis channel noon to through:00. got it right this time? >> yes. >> every week day. she is here with us in studio this morning. a lot of people think the president's trip to afghanistan is the big story of the day. we know that it's not. the really big story yesterday was the video, a video released by a certain presidential candidate making a major announcement. here it is. >> i want to take this opportunity to give you an insider advance notice that on wednesday, i will be officially suspending campaign for president. >> how about that. >> it's kind of sad. isn't it? it's such a saddened [playing taps. ]

>> we were all: when is he going to get out? he needs to move aside. now he is out. it's kind of sad. >> can you imagine? he also says he and calista are going to campaign for mitt romney. is this what mitt romney really wants? >> here is the thing, newt gingrich does not campaign for other people. newt campaigns for newt. you can see him agreeing to talk about someone else and he is not a team player. >> colonies on the moon. everything he says is going to reflect on romney. >> romney is, like thanks. we'll call you. >> you know, the crews of the greek islands -- c ruiz e, why hasn't rick santorum. newt says he is going to endorse romney and campaign for him. rick santorum has not? >> no. he is holding out. they are meeting on friday. private meeting, the two of them. they will sit down and talk. no press allowed. i don't even know if there is going to be a photo.

and who knows what they will talk about, what will come out of the meeting? but it's a thing. >> so rick santorum is going to go in with a list of demands? >> sure. >> or requests maybe. >> there is a lot of bad blood there. i think there is a lot of bad feeling between the two of them. they have to work that out. >> santorum probably feels he has to show that he delivered? right? or extracted something from romney? >> i think rick santorum feels he is owed. don't you get that sense? >> oh, yeah. >> he is owed something. >> i think he thinks he is owed the presidency. and that he will collect it in 2016. god knows. now, i want to go book to the dinner because you were sitting alongside of jimmy kimmel. what was the reaction and do you think it was appropriate when president obama told the dog joke about the pit bull being delicious? i tell you, you can hear the

gasps in the audience. oh, no. i can't believe you went there. >> pit bull didis delicious and they had the carrier strapped to air force 1. it was very funny. i thought it was hilarious. when you are up there on the stage, you don't really get a sense of what's happening in the room. you can't see the room. there is lights shining in our eyes. we can't see past the first row so you can get like some vibe or hear some laughter but it's not really like being in the middle of the room and there is people around. it's a little different experience. >> but was the president laughing? >> he always laughs at his own jokes, always. >> was he laughing at jimmy kimmel's jokes? >> yes, and so was michelle obama. shifts she was sitting on the other side of him. he was nervous. >> who? >> jimmy kimmel. he kept going over his notes and asking our opinion on some of his jokes and she and i were trying to talk to him about his kids. i was talking to him about high school, what he was like in high school. and just trying to a couple of him down trying to keep him calm. his family was there.

his girlfriend was there. he was very, very nerved up about that speech. >> don't you imagine that you would be? >> terrifying. >> that's the toughest crowd i think, you could possibly have for a stand-up economic. >> i think it was a cool moment near the end or at the very end when he said, i am about to high five the president of the united states. you could sort of tell he was glad it was over. >> yeah. exactly. >> it was a great message to his history teacher who told him he would never amount to anything. >> suck it. >> exactly. >> but also julie you will be best known for the photo that you took of george clooney. >> a million photos. he was sitting close to the front and he and jimmy kimmel are friends and he knew jimmy kimmel was about this speech. he kept jumping up and giving him high-fives and saying, you are going to do great. good luck, buddy. you are going to kill it, really showing a lot of support. >> yeah. >> and i have seen that in previous years when -- this is

my third year sitting on the stage. whoever the entertainment is not when it was leno but last year seth myers and his saturday night crew were coming up to the foot of the stage, don't be nervous. you are going to be wonderful and the same for jimmy kimmel. kevin spacek wished him luck. they know how scary it can be. >> from the potus channel, julie mason, now ms. potus, i will ask you this and we will take a quick break and come back. saturday, it becomes official. president obama making his first two campaign rallies. non-of these other events have been political, back to our previous conversation. >> right. right. >> these are the first two campaign events, one in ohio and one in virg. so what does this mean? off and running? 866-55-press is our toll-free number. got a seat at the table for you with me, bill press, and julie mason on the full-court press, wednesday, may 2nd.

♪ >> this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america.

>> overwhelming majority of the country says tax the rich, don't go to war.

>> that's awesome! ♪ >> this is the full court press, the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. at the top of the hour we turn things over to stephanie miller. julie mason hosts the press pool every day from noon to 3:00. she is in studio with us. julie, i have to ask you this before we get to your calls again at 866-55-press.

so i follow you joining the white house correspondence association and yesterday, i get the president's schedule and it doesn't have much on his calendar. i mentioned a pretty soft day for the president, no public events, and the briefing was unusual late hour of 3:00 p.m. >> we all knew something was going on. >> not me. i showed up at the whitehouse with a brief -- for the briefing grumbling about the fact it was so late. have you ever ever seen a full day of phony schedule put out? >> you are used to their rhythms, when you see a schedule, you think he is going to have a surprise press conference or he's on a trip. always, every time. he specially when you see the briefing at 3:00. what's jay carney doing? >> carney has them about 12:30. >> right.

and president obama on that pivotal day. we had been watching to see what they were planning for that day and an innocuous meeting with leon panet at that and joe biden? no. before i went on the air yesterday, the rumors starting flying around the white house and there were a few reporters missing who were on the plane with him. so everyone started gossiping about it and trying to confirm he was in fact going to afghanistan. sure enough, he did. >> yeah. i mentioned very early in the show, so when i showed up, i saw peter mars, a friend of ours from cbs who was there and we are chatting about the dinner and i said, what are they doing scheduling this briefing like at 3:00 o'clock. peter said, bill. >> bill. >> sit down. bill, do you see that podium? there is not going to be any brief from that podium. in five minutes, the president is landing in afghanistan. i almost fell off my chair. >> corky calling from rockchester, new york.

corky, good morning. >> good morning, bill. >> what's up. >> that young lady, she was questioning what went on in that room, and i submit to you nobody needs to know what went on in that room. all they need to know is the results: bid lauden is dead and gm is alive. >> let's start about this campaign. >> that's what joe biden said sums tup. >> that was his great line. >> that's a great bumper sticker line by joe biden. >> it's true. both ends of it are true. i like the foreign policy and the sdmeft i can side. >> right and also, it addresses two things that republicans real on, national security and the economy. those are the things republicans have campaigned on and the democrats are claiming those things the president starts

officially. >> when i got that e-mail from jim mesina i snorted diet coke out my nose. okay. because we haven't been campaigning. >> whether it's the official or unofficial or the real or unreal start to the campaign, my impression and i would like to ask yours, obama is not taking anything for granted. >> no. they are micro targeting. they are not leaving any constituency unhugged. they are targeting pet owners and women and, you know, everyone, everyone and this rally, you know, what to listen for is how far he is willing to go in criticizing his opponent. joe biden is a partisan attack doing lots of like very tart campaign speeches. they are great to listen to, great campaign mode great campaign rhetoric but how far is president obama willing to go? if he goes too political too early he risks turning off mod rats. >> but he has now several times

mentioned mitt romney by name. sometimes he will say my opponents. yesterday talking about when he was with the prime minister of japan and alluding to how mitt romney said he would not go after bin laden. president obama would say you should ask some people why she wouldn't do that. >> i was there with the prime minister of japan and the president on monday. all of us were surprised when the president got the question about maybe a little excessive celebration. right? he said there wasn't any. then he said look like depict they meant what they said. i meant it when i said we had a shot at osama bin laden i would take it and i did. i mean that was tough rhetoric

there. so i think he does have. >> he blistless when the republicans solve t it's all right, who got bin laden. it's great to say, he is usually so even-tempered but he gets his back up. >> that's what his partisans love to see as well. >> i think he likes campaigning. >> i think he likes the adulation. he is not a tactile person but he likes to meet the supporters. i don't think he is much different from politicians. he has a love of an adoring crowd. >> we will see you, hear you later on the press pool on sirius xm the potus channel, julie mason, and you are welcome here in the full-court press any time. >> thank you so much for having me on, bill.

great to be on your show. >> i will be back with a quick parting shot here on wednesday, may 2nd. >> this is the bill press show. ♪

we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block.

>> the parting shot with bill press, this is the bill press show. >> and on this wednesday may 2nd, my parting shot for today is sort of a new twist on the old line: what if they gave a war and nobody came? yesterday, it was what if they gave a briefing and nobody came? yeah, at 3:00 o'clock yesterday afternoon, all of us white house reporters showed up for the briefing. we all came but jay carney did not. he didn't show up because he was on that unscheduled trip with

president obama to afghanistan. and, of course, some republicans are going to condemn that trip as peer review politics but that's just sour grapes. this was for the nation an historic moment, as the president pointed out in his speech last night. we have come full-circle from 10 years ago when people in al-qaeda and ask afghan called those attacks when the president saw. afghanistan and in iraq it's also a time to give credit. on his: in fact t american that's my parting shop for today.

have a great day. come back and see us right here